Bonaldo Stringher was born in Udine on 18 December 1854. In 1874, he graduated from the Venice Ca’ Foscari School of Commerce. Having joined the State Administration, he was appointed head of the office for customs legislation in 1884 and subsequently became director general for taxation in 1891.

He always coupled his scholarly activities with his post as a civil servant and in 1888 he earned the state doctorate in public science and was put in charge of comparative customs law at the University of Rome.

Subsequently, in his capacity as inspector general of the Treasury, he devoted himself to the preparation of the banking act of 1893, which established the Bank of Italy, whilst in 1898, in recognition of services provided in the reform of the banks of issue, he was appointed state advisor.

After a brief political stint as a Member of Parliament, in 1900 he took over the management of the Bank of Italy, maintaining that position nearly uninterruptedly (with a break in 1919 when he was treasury minister) until his death in 1930. In this capacity, he played a leading role in Italy’s economic-financial affairs.

In 1912 Giolitti also entrusted him with the presidency of the new state agency, the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni (National Insurance Institute), which had only just been founded to manage life insurance on a monopoly basis and to whose creation and success Stringher decisively contributed, with Councilor Beneduce and General Manager Tocci.

In January 1923, following the dissolution of the corporate bodies of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni by Mussolini, due to domestic political changes and consequently due the suspension of the monopoly on life insurance (the law of 29 April 1923 n. 966 would repeal it), Stringher lost his post of president of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni.

He died in Rome, on 24 December 1930, after having returned from a short stay in his native Friuli.

Documentation on Stringher’s activity as president of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni is kept at the INA Assitalia Historical Archive.